


Never Too Late

by oscarwilderobbieross



Series: Post-Civil War Character Studies [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Flashbacks, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:13:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7848208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oscarwilderobbieross/pseuds/oscarwilderobbieross
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve looks back on his mistakes and past with Tony</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Regrets

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a two-chapter fic, with the second chapter devoted to a flashback of the Tony/Steve relationship, because I'm not here to paint either of them as the bad guy. So look out for that!

**I need you right now.**

 

**Don’t let me down.**

 

Steve remembered when he realised that this world was different from the past. During the war you went to the battlefield and if you were lucky, you went home and would find it standing upright. Now war was a lot different, already decided before the fighting started. He didn’t talk about war with Tony, with Tony he spoke about what he had missed, everything now and then.

 

Bucky was different, he only existed in the past, and when he fell off the train, he lost his opportunity to live like anything but a machine. They talked about the past they had together, if it was a good day. On bad days, Bucky didn’t speak, and Steve felt like he had when he just got out of the ice. A little lost and caught up in conversations about strategies and next moves with Sam.

 

When Bucky decided to stay with T’Challa, Steve didn’t want to hold it against him. He pushed down the feeling of betrayal, allowing Sam to distract him by speaking about the plans to break the rest of the crew out of the Raft. He didn’t want to spend a lot of time thinking, just pushing himself to keep moving instead.

 

He would think about what he would do if everything was normal again, and after they visited the Raft, he wrote Tony the letter, giving him the means to contact him again, because a part of him craved that. He knew he hurt Tony, and he didn’t think he’d ever be forgiven for that, but he didn’t want to go back to waking in a bed alone and dwelling on the past.

 

Sam was a solid friend, and Sharon would check in with him if her work allowed it, but he couldn’t deny the feelings he’d developed for Tony, similar to the feelings he’d had for Bucky a long time ago, when he was a different person.


	2. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A complete mind melt of Steve's emotions after the smoke cleared and before the fire even started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did this after finishing assignments for school to distract myself, and because I haven't descended from my salt-mountain about CW.

They were happy together, very happy.

 

If you’d have told Steve what would happen in the future, maybe he would have been more careful. Maybe he wouldn’t have shared his bed with Tony every night, wouldn’t have chosen to make them breakfast when he got up before the other; luring him out of bed with the promise of eggs and coffee.

 

He wouldn’t have been thinking about the future, the way they could find a place outside of the Avengers compound and Malibu, one too crowded and the other pertaining too much bad memories. They didn’t really talk about Pepper and how she and Tony had tried and tried again. Steve thought he blamed himself for it, but if he did, he never said.

 

Tony Stark carried a lot of guilt and a lot of fears, and they’d come out at night, then some nights, then weekly, and then rarely. Steve forced his words out of him, not just the clever banter and the snappy comments, but the real words that he kept locked tight. He hoped Pepper didn’t feel guilty sometimes, or resented them. They had problems for years, problems that came from Tony making promises he knew he wouldn’t keep.

 

But Steve finally thought they could be together for real, their demons discussed and understood. Not violently shoved away, but filed away. They had conversations for hours, and Tony unravelled in his arms, but he didn’t expect to do the same.

 

They were healthy together, taking care of each other and making the room lighter when it got too heavy. Tony learned to talk, instead of just saying how ‘fine’ he was. And Steve learned to let go of the tight set of his jaw when Tony touched his cheek.

 

And now he was here, somewhere in Europe, in a windy warehouse with the others, thinking over a letter and nearly crushing a burner phone before shoving it into an envelope.


End file.
